Wednesday, 6 September 2017

THE CRAZY people behind
South Park dreamt up an episode in 2016 entitled ‘Where’s my Country Gone?’
which ripped into illegal immigration, the rise of the alt-right and the
problems of political correctness.

Like most things on
South Park you laugh (yes I am that juvenile!) but move on. But increasingly I
now am asking myself, ‘Where has my country gone’.

The Britain of 2017
looks increasingly unfamiliar to me. Gone is compassion, replaced with hate and
vengefulness. Tolerance and decency are packing their bags and heading for the
airport while democracy is now a dirty word.

We’ve learned today any
‘unskilled’ EU migrants will be told to shove off post March 2019 in the latest
horrid chapter from the Book of Brexit.

Let me declare I voted
to remain but also respect democracy so understand we are leaving. But does it
have to be like this?

Why are we lecturing
the EU? Why are we closing our borders to people who genuinely want to come
here to work? Why are we trying to revive the days of Empire?

Most EU migrants who
come to the UK do so to get a job, settle down and raise a family. It’s the
opposite to what a large portion of Brits do, retire to a foreign land.

One group pays into the
country in taxes, National Insurance contributions and to the overall economy.
The other does the square root of bugger all – sorry folks but you know which
is which….

Surely instead of
throwing a maternity until full of babies out in a sea of bath water, we could
have just tightened up our immigration policies? Why are we taking such drastic
steps?

Immigration is not a
dirty word, we live in a world where freedom of movement is a real privilege.
But equally we cannot expect other countries to house British people retiring
to a life in the sun if we aren’t prepared to accept hard-working natives from
their land.

That’s not fair. But
then again, those in charge of the agenda in 2017 UK don’t do fairness, they do
hectoring, lectures and abuse.

As Paul Dacre’s Daily
Mail opined in June, those who oppose Brexit are ‘enemies of the people’, ‘saboteurs’
and don’t respect democracy.

It’s a mantra repeated
by Conservative and Labour MPs who dream of nothing more than a Britain free
from the EU and will do anything to secure that exit.

From Boris Johnson’s
lies (£350million for the NHS) to Gisela Stuart running away from the people of
Edgbaston, the Brexiteers lied their way to glory. If it had happened in any
other country we’d be the first to call it corrupt….

But time and time again
if Brexit is threatened the dark murmurings begin and let’s face it, the Prime
Minister is being held hostage in Downing Street by rampant Brexiteers with the
warning to deliver our exit or else.

Then you are playing
into the hands of the politicians who are monopolising ‘silly season’ to hide
what is really going on from you, dear voter.

In case you aren’t
aware of ‘silly season’ it’s the period of the summer where politics and
politicians are often on holiday leaving news editors bereft of good stories.

Normally the gap is
filled with what women politicians are wearing on the beach and the occasional
shot of David Cameron in just some shorts. Google it if you dare!

This summer though we
have had protests in the US over statues which laud those who oppressed black
people in the United States of America.

One woman died in
Charlottesville when rival protestors clashed and no matter what the Tangerine
Toddler says, the only fault lies with the moron whose actions led to her life
being lost.

Are these statues
right? No of course not, but they are just what they are, relics of the past.

By fanning the flames
of these protests, the Tangerine Toddler is diverting the attention away from
the chaos which is the White House.

An administration where
none of the key players have survived, a President who has been drawn into the
propaganda being peddled by North Korea while unable to get any policy through
a Congress which is stacked in his party’s favour.

No wonder he wants to
fan the flames of the left v right protests over these statues.

Meanwhile over here in
good ol Blighty we were all supposed to feel jolly said that Big Ben will no
longer announce the time on the hour every hour for four years.

The chief Brexit propaganda
outlet the Daily Fail went to town and demanded it didn’t go ahead and how it
would hurt us Brits not to hear Big Ben every day.

Erm….the work is needed
and why should those poor folks going up there to do it be left tone deaf?

Oh and by the way, New
Year’s Eve at 11.59.59pm we won’t be ringing in 2018 in silence as the big daft
tower will be in working order!

Yet the days of
headlines generated seemed to suggest a national crisis. Have you ever thought
it was designed to distract you from a Government divided over Brexit with a
policy which now seems to be ‘can we keep everything we had but still leave’.

Those in power know
Brexit will finish them; should they succeed and pull Britain away from the
comfort of life among the 27 nations in Europe our economy will sink to its
knees gasping for air.

Should they fail to
deliver they risk never being trusted on anything again.

Either way the Tories
and Trump know they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Don’t succumb to the
silly season, keep what matters at the forefront of your minds.

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

ONE week on from one of
the worst non terrorist tragedies I have ever seen, I can’t get past the first
question…..Why?

Why did it happen? Why
in Britain in 2017 can a place of solace, a place to rest your head, a place to
laugh, a place to cry, a place to call home go up in flames so quickly and
cause so much death and destruction?

Why did one brave
firefighter feel the need to write on his shirt ‘We did our best, I promise’
when once again they ran towards the gates of hell as others fled.

And most importantly
why on earth have our politicians gone ahead with a public inquiry when
criminal proceedings MUST be explored first.

Profit was almost
certainly put before the people of Grenfell, those who took such decisions must
answer for them in a court of law.

I cannot for a second
imagine the desperation of those trapped inside, their final moments and the
realisation there was no exit when they needed it the most.

Nor can I imagine the
pain of Grenfell, from those who lost everything in the disaster to those who
have lost loved ones and may never be able to lay them properly to rest.

Death doesn’t
discriminate, it doesn’t take names, it just reaches in and causes pain and
devastation to all those in its path.

All of us with a heart
will be haunted by the images of that tower as it burned, but we should all
have a burning shame that we aren’t as well forward as we thought we were.

Britain is full of
wonderfully created buildings, from the historic to the modern, from churches
to libraries, football stadiums to supermarkets.

We place our trust in
those who designed and built them that they did their job and these venues
would keep us reasonably safe.

Yet the victims of
Grenfell were betrayed in the place which held their secrets, a place they
could express all emotions, cast off the shackles society can place on people
and truly be themselves.

It was the place they
called home which killed them, how in god’s name am I even writing that
sentence in 2017?

For crying out loud, we
put a man on the moon, we’ve stood up to the most dangerous threat posed to the
free world in the Nazis and we have made medical advances which mean a
diagnosis now doesn’t necessarily mean death.

But on this night, we
couldn’t keep people safe in their own damned homes and watched as a community
was ripped to shreds with some choosing to leap to certain death than await the
inevitable.

My thoughts and prayers
are with all those affected by this tragedy, we can’t bring the fallen back but
together as a nation we can help a community begin to heal.

Grenfell is a monument
now, a symbol of how Britain failed the basic function of the state, to keep
its people safe.

Thursday, 23 March 2017

YESTERDAY was a dark
day for the capital with innocent lives taken and others changed in
ways we cannot comprehend.

Hopefully any broken
bodies will heal and in time some of the horrors witnessed yesterday
will be locked away deep in the recesses of the victim's minds.

The stories of the
victims from the brave PC Keith Palmer who ran towards danger rather
than away to the American man on a 'trip of a lifetime' to celebrate
his 25th wedding anniversay, are utterly tragic and
emotional.

My heart goes out to
their families and all those whose loved ones were caught up in this
murderous rampage.

And I sincerely hope PC
Palmer was welcomed to a higher plain with a pat on the back from his
fellow fallen bobbies for bringing the target down. It's
heartbreaking to think it cost him his life.

But already some on the
right are seeking to make political gain from this, including Ms
Hopkins and messers Farage and Nuttall, speaking from his home
in......where does he live again?

'Britons are scared'
'Muslims need to do more', etc etc. The same old claptrap trotted out
everytime something like this happens.

The problem is this
mantra is so deeply flawed that actually if we dared ever take their
views seriously we'd be playing straight into the so-called ISIS's
hands.

Firstly, we aren't
scared – look how quickly London has bounced back, nervous yes but
normality has ensued today. Remember Hitler tried to flatten London
and we simply drank tea and hit him with everything we had!

Secondly, terrorism is
not a new weapon exclusively available to the Islamic world, it's
been a cancer on all races, creeds and religions since the year dot.

When diplomacy and
democracy don't work – the tapped amongst us turn to bombs and
bullets.

Has it ever worked in
the modern world? No of course not!

Do you really think the
Muslim community across the UK is turning a blind eye to this
radicalisation of young men? Of course they aren't. But a number of
men and women are being sucked into a vicious vacuum where jihad is
there only way out.

I recoil when the
phrase Islamic Extremism is used – what happened yesterday and on
other occasions is simply terrorism, it didn't work for the IRA (We
never called that Catholic Extremism did we?) and it won't work now.

The terrorist failed in
his mission yesterday, as well as multiple deaths on Westminster
Bridge he wanted to take victims in the seat of our democracy and be
taken down as a martyr.

Instead, thanks to the
compassion and care of British people, the casualties were heavily
reduced, although one wishes the only death had been his.

Look beyond the
attacker's religion, give him no name other than 'the terrorist' and
stand together with your fellow man and woman of all races and
religions.

The threat we face
today is not from Islam, from immigrants to our country or from
people who look and sound different to us.

It's from people who
don't accept our way of life, our values, our tolerance and our
respect and have bastardized a peaceful religion to achieve their
wicked aims.

All of us, in London,
the UK and the rest of the world won't let them win.

Friday, 17 February 2017

IT'S INCREDIBLE that 10 years after leaving Downing Street, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair still provokes as much bile and vitriol as we have seen today.

His 'crime' this time? To dare to suggest the British people voted to leave without knowing Brexit's terms and conditions and opine that a space existed where he and other people could persuade voters to change their minds.

Basically the former PM is suggesting the sort of insurgency which has brought the likes of Farage, Nuttall, Le Pen and President Trump to the fore except this time in reverse.

His speech has predictably been ripped to shreds by the Brexiteers and the media who whip out their favourite 'affront to democracy' lines when anyone dares suggest Brexit isn't full of milk and honey.

However on this Blair is spot on. The British people did vote leave without knowing the terms and conditions of an exit and a space does exist to change people's minds....it's called the Her Majesty's official opposition.

In a single speech, Blair has done more to oppose Brexit than Jeremy Corbyn has since June 23, 2016 and shown a clear, decisive approach to what is a thorny issue for the Labour Party.

Let's remember the current 'opposition' to the Government have pretty much waived Brexit through the House of Commons, yes amendments were tabled but they failed and many Labour MPs still voted in favour apart from a hardy few who stuck to their principles.

The Liberal Democrats have been principled opponents as have the SNP but the overwhelming narrative is Brexit MUST happen. No, the ATMs must have money, our hospitals must have doctors and nurses and our schools must have teachers.

Against this backdrop, a tissue of lies and half-truths and hypocrisy has been allowed to be 'the norm' and to go unchallenged for fear of being labelled 'unpatriotic'.

It was wonderful to see the Foreign Secretary tear into Mr Blair....Because we all know Boris led the Leave campaign with facts, not with lies such as buses promising £350million extra for the NHS .....

This would be understandable had our nation voted overwhelmingly to leave, such as the 10 percentage point result of the Scottish referendum result. But Brexit was decided by less than the three percentage point margin of error used in all opinion polls.

It was also decided by a margin previously described by Nigel Farage as 'unfinished business' had it been the opposite way around......but shhh we aren't allowed to talk about that.

It's therefore right for someone to squeeze into the gap and pose the awkward questions, because Brexit should only mean Brexit if we can negotiate an exit which ensures our wonderful isle can continue to prosper.

That should be the message from the Labour Party but while Her Majesty's official opposition continues its breakdown, running scared of UKIP while taking even further away from its core voters, then the space exists for someone to exploit.